At AUN, we apply knowledge to solve societal problems – Osuagwu

I like the question. It is a kind of question I want to hear whether from journalists or colleagues. What is the unique offering; what is new about you? You know the theories are the same, but the contents vary. I mean, if you want to generate theory, by that I mean, the body of knowledge, to explain whatever we define as Business- they seem to be basically the same form. But having given somebody that body of knowledge, you also give him the skill, the facilities, you expose him also to the context and connections required to succeed in life. Nobody can say he succeeded because of one variable, especially in issues concerning human life. It is not possible. Also, our university is like the United Nations, we have over 30 nationals of different countries made up of lecturers, administrators and those interested in what we do. For those who come here (AUN), this body of knowledge makes it unique; they are taught by these experts from different backgrounds, countries and people with the necessary exposure around the world. These are what we offer in Business and Entrepreneurship. It is difficult to say one has succeeded because of one variable. It is not possible.

Number two, this is a contemporary world, even if you were to be in MIT, Harvard, they would tell you the same thing we tell our students here, in terms of teaching because we have the resources, the equipment and everything that is needed to impart that right knowledge. It is possible to mount projector to say this and that, but that’s not all about Business and Entrepreneurship. We have the right technology to equip our students. Number three is that this is American University, in Nigeria; everything here is done in the same way it is done over there. Even if you are to be in Boston, it is the same thing. In addition, the contents are Nigerian. There is no way you can remove the uniqueness of every country. In our case, honestly, we, I mean Nigeria; we are still struggling to grow. Therefore, when you give somebody this body of knowledge, you have to relate it in the context of his country; there is poverty, there is tribalism; we have a history that people are like leaves that are connected. If you hold a PhD, a lot of people will be looking up to you in your family and the extended family, etc. The body of knowledge we are giving is situated in the context of Nigeria and may be, other developing countries around us. Remember, our African brothers and sisters look up to us- Nigerians. The part of Nigeria I come from may differ from where another person comes from. We believe in apprenticeship. We have a culture where you go to the village and pick up somebody, you make that person, and that person goes back and picks another individual and makes him. That’s a connection. These are realities we tell our students.

Number four is that we are sophisticated, but there are some of our brothers and sisters out there who are not as sophisticated. What do we do? We relate to them; we know they don’t have the technology or the exposure we enjoy. For instance, how many universities in this country give lecture via web, or enjoy 24-hour power supply. All the world class libraries are in my mobile phone and I connect with them anytime I want to use them. But how many of our colleagues out there have this privilege? So, we go to them so that we can share what we have- the knowledge, the resources- so that makes us a development university. We apply the knowledge we have to solve societal problems, no doubts about that. Universities were called Ivory Towers, but no, they may be ivory towers in scholarship, but having got that knowledge we want to use it to solve the routine and complex problems in our society. Most of the books we have here are not written by Nigerians, they are written by foreign authors, but we apply the principles and the knowledge acquired from the books to our own situation, to be better than those places where the books were written? That’s what we are doing here.

They are everywhere. I said that what we do at AUN is to give you the tools and the knowledge to be a perfect person. We are hardworking here; a person who leaves here can decide to, remember there are so many routes you can follow, further his education to postgraduate level, establish his own business or work for others. You know these things are part of the options or choices in life. If you go through career fair- there’s something we call career fair, where companies come to look for our students for employment. There are also those who want to further to MSc, MBA, PhD, etc. This is a complete school- where we do undergraduate programmes, MSc, MBA and PhD. There are those who want to follow the line of scholarship, those who want to serve themselves, etc. Opportunities are open for everybody because they have been well prepared for whatever they may want to be in life. One of our graduates just won an election into the House of Representatives; just a young school as ours; you know what that means? Somebody from a young school as ours, winning House of Representatives election in a contemporary Nigeria! So, we are there. We are connected in so many things. We have alliances with many universities abroad- Oxford, and so many big universities out there. There’s uniqueness in our products; they are doing well and the average person sees them and is attracted to them and the human nature copies- so people try to copy good things they see in our students.

Let me address that quickly. I am a made-in-Nigeria graduate. We started the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) and I got a PhD from the University of Lagos (UNILAG).The truth is that there are options in life. Here, it is either you go to the cafeteria of you go to the club to eat. Now, even the federal universities, you can’t tell me that they cost the same. No. Remember, this is n American University situated within our culture. For instance, if you were to do Business and Entrepreneurship in any average university in the US, you would pay ten times what we are paying here (AUN). People are asking, can I still train my children in the American style education while at the same time allowing them to realise that they are Igbos, Hausas and Yorubas, etc. Remember, that’s what we’re addressing here. We integrate two important things- cultural aspect and sophistry in education (as it is being offered in America), yet we pay one tenth (1/10) of what is paid over there. We are far cheaper. What a parent like me would have paid by sending my son or daughter to America to study, I pay only one tenth of the total cost by bringing them here. We like continuity. We like training our children because we think it is a responsibility.

Two, there are some secondary schools in this country today whose fees are higher than what we charge at AUN. Three, it is either you are in the university or you are not. I don’t like this pretence. You are in a university and the basic things are lacking. For instance, there’s no light etc. Here, it is not so; we enjoy 24-hour power supply. Again, the NUC has specified that for you to be called a university, certain things must be in place. There are some adverts they’ll tell you, there are no hidden charges. Here at AUN, there are no hidden charges; we tell you what it is.